Well, I guess I’ve been MIA on this blog since our trip, partly because I’ve been sucked in by my summer bird job, and also because my backpacking (mis)adventures don’t seem quite as thrilling and exotic as Emily’s globetrotting cavorts. Also, I really don’t know how many people actually read this blog, so if you do, you should tell us and we’ll be encouraged to keep writing in it, although Emily has been doing an awesome job, must be nice to have internet access every day.
So, anyway, I’ve been in the Sierras of central California since late April. Before my job started I helped out with another project that my non-profit (the Institute for Bird Populations) is conducting with the funding of the Forest Service that works with Black-Backed Woodpeckers. We were doing playback surveys and catching the birds with mist-nets, putting transmitters on them, and then tracking their movements with radio telemetry. After a week doing that in northern California, I started my real job in Yosemite. This year was my third summer doing the job (though in a different national park every summer), but my first as the crew leader. I was a little nervous for the extra responsibility, but glad to have been able to work up the job ladder a notch. The first three weeks were training for the newly hired interns. Every morning we’d go out at dawn to bird for most of the morning, and then for the rest of the day go over how to carry out the protocol for bird surveys. It was interesting to be on the other side of the student-teacher relationship.
The first week all four of us surveyed in Yosemite, then after that Zeka and I went down to Sequoia/Kings Canyon for the rest of the summer while Ryan and Sam stayed in Yosemite. Emily came down to visit for an all too brief weekend after the first week and the two of us went camping in the Big Sur area of the California coast. I’d first explored Big Sur on time off while I was doing spotted owl work back in 2006, and it was great to share some of my treasured places and memories with Emily.
After that Zeka and I got started in Seqoia/Kings Canyon, or SEKI, for short. It’s been really cool to survey in groves of sequoias, the largest trees (by volume) in the world. This year is a really heavy snow pack year, and it’s had a huge affect on the field season. We gradually survey sites higher in elevation throughout the summer, and usually place at least partially melt out by the times we need to hike there. Not this year. It’d be manageable to this point because we’d been in lower sites, but now every site left required beefy trips into the backcountry, most of which involve crossing high mountain passes. The weather has been relatively hot and dry recently, and the snow is melting, so hopefully we’ll be able to get to places eventually. While everything is melting all the streams have surged with all the meltwater, making crossings a little dicey. We’re trying to get where we can while being safe at the same time.
After this job ends in July I’m planning to hike the John Muir Trail, which spans over 200 miles between Yosemite and Mt. Whitney, which is just outside Sequoia NP. I’ve been wanting to do a long hike like this for a long time and am getting really excited for it! I’ll be joined by a few friends for at least a good part of the hike, and it’ll be great to share such an incredible experience with them.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well. Write me and tell me what’s going on with you. Take care.
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